This project has been funded with support from the European Commission

Experiences of citizenship education at school and perspectives on citizenship amongst social science undergraduates

Author(s)

Watt, P., Gifford, C., Koster, S.

Publisher

CiCe Publications

Year

2006

Editor

A. Ross, Citizenship Education: Europe and the World

Language

English

Age group

-

Keywords/Abstract

What are young people’s views of citizenship education in the UK? This paper surveys social science undergraduates previous experiences of citizenship education and their attitudes towards and practices of citizenship. There was a widespread view that learning about citizenship was fairly interesting and some students indicated that it could be challenging and allowed them to express opinions. Several students also stressed inadequate teaching. Asked to define citizenship, many didn’t know or were vague. Others stressed issues of rights and responsibilities and active citizenship seemed important, but not formal political processes. Young students generally are far from politically inert or apathetic, as is commonly suggested. Moreover, these social science undergraduates also seem more engaged than studies of young people generally indicate.